DRIVE FOR FIVE STARTS FOR FOUR

Aric Almirola

October 01, 2014 – The Monster Mile shattered the hopes and dreams of four former Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers at Dover.

AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch were all eliminated from Chase contention following the last race of the opening Challenger Round as the field shrunk from 16 to 12.

Going into the race, Allmendinger stood in good shape to advance to the Contender Round. He ranked 10th on the Chase Grid, one point ahead of Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman, and seven points ahead of 13th-place Denny Hamlin for the final spot. Biffle (-6 points below the cutoff), Busch (-8) and Almirola (-10) were all on the outside looking in, manning the 14th-16th positions respectively, but still had realistic chances of climbing into the top 12.

Hamlin – who earlier dubbed the race as the most important of his career – vaulted himself into the top 12 with an 11th-place finish, but his performance alone was not enough to bump the 23rd-place Allmendinger from the Chase. Kasey Kahne battled from four laps down on Lap 240, finishing 20th to hold off Allmendinger by two points for the final Contender Round spot.

The four now have a new goal: Fifth place. Even though they were bounced in the first round, Allmendinger, Almirola, Biffle and Busch can still battle for fifth in the final championship points. From here on out, any driver eliminated from the Chase will have his points reset to 2,000, with any points accumulated during the Chase (as well as bonus points to start the Chase) added to that total.

 

REBOUND TIME: BOTTOM FOUR ATTEMPT TO STAY IN THE CHASE HUNT

Ryan Newman

September 19, 2014 – Luckily for Ryan Newman, AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle and Aric Almirola, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Challenger Round does not end after one race. The revamped playoff system keeps all drivers in the hunt until the very last lap at Dover.

Thank goodness. The four stumbled at New Hampshire and currently reside in spots 13-16 in the Chase standings. Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. on ESPN) presents vastly different outlooks for each driver as they try to make the cut after the third Chase race at Dover:

Ryan Newman – The most successful driver of the four at New Hampshire, Newman has to like his chances to advance to the Contender Round. He owns a track-record seven Coors Light Pole Awards and ranks tied for first among all entrants with three wins. His last checkered flag at Loudon came in 2011 and he posted a fifth-place finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ first visit there this season.

AJ Allmendinger – In 11 starts at New Hampshire, Allmendinger has one top-10 finish and an average running position of 23.6.

Greg Biffle – Biffle entered the Chase with a string of consistent performances, locking himself into the last spot with five top-10 finishes in his last six regular season races. In 24 starts at New Hampshire, Biffle owns one win (2008), six top fives and nine top 10s.

Aric Almirola – Perhaps the biggest underdog going into the Chase, Almirola was running sixth at Chicagoland until his engine blew with 36 laps to go. The setback caused him to finish 41st. Almirola finished fifth at Loudon in 2013. Otherwise, he hasn’t posted a showing better than 18th in seven other starts there.

 

STREAK OF RECENT MICHIGAN WINNERS TO CONTINUE

August 16, 2013 – With Brendan Gaughan the only previous NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race winner at Michigan entered in Saturday’s Michigan National Guard 200 it means the streak of new winners over the past eight races will continue.

Gaughan, who enters this weekend looking for his first win of the season, won in 2003 at the track. There have been eight different winners beginning with Dennis Setzer’s 2005 victory.

Greg Biffle and Travis Kvapil are the only two-time Michigan winners but neither is entered in this week’s race.

One driver who could continue the streak of different winners is Miguel Paludo. Paludo looks to continue his impressive run to a first NCWTS victory at Michigan International Speedway and also set a new personal record.

In his two previous starts at MIS, the Brazilian native has enjoyed success with a pair of top 10s highlighted by a third-place finish in 2011. Paludo has already equaled his career-best season total of seven top-10 finishes and can set a new career mark if he keeps his streak alive at MIS.

While Ryan Blaney doesn’t have any previous starts at Michigan in a truck, he enters this weekend on a roll after his win at Pocono. The 19-year old driver also has some experience at the two-mile oval finishing second in an ARCA race earlier this year.

In fact, Blaney could be a part of two streaks this weekend at the track. He would be the ninth consecutive different winner at MIS and also the first driver win back-to-back races since Johnny Sauter did it to open the 2013 campaign.

Source: NASCAR

 

MICHIGAN: RIGHT PLACE AND RIGHT SEAT FOR GREG BIFFLE

Greg Biffle’s most recent top-five finish was a victory in June’s race at Michigan International Speedway.

August 14, 2013 – Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 (1 p.m. ET on ESPN, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio) sets up quite nicely for the driver of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford. Biffle, the defending winner of the two-mile track’s August event, is in pursuit of his third consecutive victory at MIS and fourth win overall.

Convergence is a wonderful thing. Biffle re-visits one of his best tracks when he most could use some momentum. Ninth in current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, the Vancouver, Wash. native effectively is hanging on to a provisional Chase berth by his fingernails.

Biffle is “in” – but just barely. He’s just four points ahead of 11th-place Kurt Busch, a former Roush Fenway Racing teammate. Provisional Wild Card holder Kasey Kahne, dumped from the top 10 last Sunday by a late-race accident at Watkins Glen International, is another marker back in 12th.

Biffle has insurance. His Michigan victory could translate into a Chase Wild Card entry.

Still, 10th-place Martin Truex Jr., Kahne and Indianapolis winner Ryan Newman aren’t far enough behind to make a Wild Card a sure thing. Another victory, perhaps, would be Biffle’s guarantee of punching his post-season ticket.

Biffle is at the right place at the right time – and in the right seat.

Roush Fenway Racing is the dominant organization in Michigan’s Irish Hills. Biffle’s June victory was the 13th for principal owner Jack Roush, whose headquarters lie less than 100 miles east in the Detroit suburb of Livonia. Roush previously shared the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup victory record with NASCAR Hall of Fame member Glen Wood and the Wood Brothers before breaking it with Biffle’s win last August.

Biffle, whose 110.0 Driver Rating is tops at the track, isn’t the only contemporary RFR driver with success at MIS. Teammate Carl Edwards owns a pair of victories, in 2007-08 and boasts a series-high average finish of 8.1.

Edwards ranks third in NASCAR Sprint Cup standings finishing eighth in June’s Michigan stop.

RFR’s third driver, Sunoco Rookie of the Year leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished 16th in June. Stenhouse continues to chase his first top-10 finish in NASCAR’s premier series.

Source: NASCAR

 

JEFF GORDON BUILDS MOMENTUM, NEARING SEASON’S FIRST VICTORY

August 07, 2013 – Jeff Gordon appears to have caught momentum. Yet, 2013 seems much like a year ago when the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion didn’t clinch a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth until the final race of the regular season.

Gordon, who ranked 21st in the standings earlier this year, advanced to ninth place with his runner-up finish to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne at Pocono Raceway. Yet his hold on the top 10 is tenuous as 13 points cover eighth (Kahne) and 10th (Greg Biffle).

As he’s battled from behind, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet has adopted a points-first approach which appears to be paying dividends. But a victory would be nice – especially as multiple drivers battle for top-10 ranking and potential Chase Wild Card status.

This week’s Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International (ESPN, 1 p.m. ET) plays into the California native’s strengths. It would be no surprise to see Gordon celebrating his 87th Sprint Cup victory.

Gordon is the Sprint Cup’s all-time road racing winner. He’s won nine times overall, four of them coming on The Glen’s seven-turn, 2.45-mile layout. Gordon won three consecutive times in upstate New York (1997-99). Three of his championship seasons have featured a Watkins Glen victory.

Gordon’s current hot streak is reminiscent of past dominance. Will equal a return to road course success?

Gordon won four times and finished among the top 10 in seven of eight seasons between 1994 and 2001, but has a single top 10 in his five most recent Glen starts which includes finishes of 21st, 29th and 37th.

Gordon’s road racing skills haven’t declined. His rivals have closed the performance gap.

“I think the competition has gotten so much stronger at the road courses than it used to be,” he said in Sunday’s post-race interviews. “Where I used to go to the road courses feeling confident that we were going to gain points and have a shot at winning, these days I’ve got to fight hard to get a top 10.”

“But I feel good about our road course program this year. We finished good at Sonoma (second). I felt we learned a lot at the end of the second half of the race at Watkins Glen last year. We kind of more did a test more for Watkins Glen than we did for Sonoma prior to Sonoma so I’m hoping that pays off.”

Gordon would just as soon control his own destiny going to the regular season finale next month at Richmond International Raceway – rather than depend upon what another driver did or didn’t do in 2012.

He’s won multiple races at each of the five remaining tracks comprising the Race to the Chase.

“They’re just good tracks for us and if we can start to put the execution together with the performance, I feel like we have a shot at staying in the top 10,” Gordon said. “The closer we get to Richmond the more aggressive we get. But I also think consistent top fives would do it.

“I think that would get us in. But that’s a lot to ask for.”

Source: NASCAR

 

BIFFLE LEADS FORD QUALIFIERS FOR SUNDAY’S COCA-COLA 600; ARIC ALMIROLA (THE CUBAN MISSILE) FROM TAMPA BAY FLORIDA WILL DEPART 18th

May 24, 2013

7th – Greg Biffle
13th – Carl Edwards
18th – Aric Almirola
19th – Marcos Ambrose
20th – Brad Keselowski
21st – Casey Mears
26th – David Gilliland
29th – Trevor Bayne
30th – Ricky Stenhouse
35th – David Ragan

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “That’s all I’ve got. I didn’t have any more. It was perfect on both ends. I just breathed the throttle down there in one and two. I let off less than I thought I should have down here and the car just kind of slid the front, slid the back, slid the front, but didn’t move up the track. I felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was phenomenal. I got it perfect,’ because hardly ever can you say you got it perfect, but I got every ounce that car could get but didn’t scrub any speed and didn’t leave any on the table and we’re about a tenth-and-a-half off.”

YOU WENT OVER TO KURT BUSCH AND FELT HIS FOREHEAD TO SEE IF HE WAS OK. “I know how fast I went and how on edge and how much of a nail-biter it was, so I had to check his temperature to see if he was feeling OK to drive it that fast. His car has to be really good, but my Fastenal Fusion is really good. I’m glad we made some gains on it, but this has not been our problem – qualifying. Lap 25, 50, 100 is where we’ve lacked a little bit, so that’s what we’re gonna focus on Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll be a top-10 starting spot for the 600-mile race.”

YOU’RE PRETTY GOOD AT GETTING YOURSELF IN CONTENTION, SO THAT’S THE PLAN THE LAST 100 MILES ON SUNDAY, RIGHT? “Yeah, we feel like we can and we’re just gonna work hard on it Saturday. We think we learned a little bit today in practice, so we’ll carry that into Saturday and into Sunday.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “I wish I was happy with that, but I’m not. We’ve got a faster car than that. I just asked for some adjustments that we didn’t need. I think it would have been better if I’d have left it alone after practice, but the track changes so much you try to hit this moving target and we didn’t hit it. But I think we’ve got a pretty good race car. Hopefully, that will hold up for a top-10 or 12 starting spot. It’s a 600-mile race. That’s not what we want, but that’s acceptable for here.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “We certainly improved from where we were in practice, but obviously we’re not quite as strong as we wanted to be. Qualifying has not been our strong suit. It looks like we’ll maybe end up in the front half of the field, but I feel confident we’ll be really good in the race.”

WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING ON SUNDAY? “The pace change between day to night is always very significant and requires almost two different setups in the car, so having a lot of adjustability and being with a team that can do that well is what’s gonna showcase the most speed and give a team the opportunity to win.”

DOES IT MATTER WHERE YOU START? “It matters in the sense of pit stall selection and the opportunity to get in a wreck very early. Other than that, no it doesn’t.”

CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “I think it was decent. We beat some respectable guys, but obviously the track is gonna get quicker. I had to pedal it a little bit just past the center of one and two. I think we could have run a .90, but it got just a little bit tight. All in all it’s not too bad. The track is gonna get faster and there are still a lot of good guys to go yet, so it’ll be interesting to see where it all stacks up, but it wasn’t too bad.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “The results aren’t what we wanted at all, but the thing was stuck through one and two. I felt like we had to be on the pole off of two, but then I got over to turn three where the sun was shining and it was just so hot and slick. I don’t know if some of those guys caught a cloud or what, but if we could have gone out late at night, I honestly think we had a shot at the pole as good as our car was in the shaded areas. In those hot areas we were just way too tight.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion – “We missed it a little bit. I thought there was gonna be more grip out there and I committed to there being more grip out there and I just overdrove the car. I thought there was gonna be substantially more grip and there really wasn’t enough to go as fast as I was trying to go. That should be OK. I don’t think it will be horrible. We expected a whole lot more than that after being fifth in practice. We thought we were gonna be really good, so I’m a little bit disappointed, but it’s a long race and last year we started first and didn’t finish first, so this year it’s more important to finish first.”